Grace

Before September slips too far into the past, I need to publish this series of photos of a Great Egret taking off from the bank of the San Antonio River. The egret circled over the river twice as it gained altitude then flew off upstream...

This set of photographs was taken along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River downstream from the Southcross Blvd bridge on Monday, September 30, 2013.

Bunny-ears Senna

The problem with common names for plants and animals is there is no standardization or convention. Common names frequently are descriptive of some characteristic or quality of the creature. Essentially, they are nicknames that can very from one community to another.

Early this week I led a hike for 4th grade students along the Oak Loop Trail at Hardberger Park. While discussing the characteristics of Velvet-leaf Mallow with the class, the topic of how plants get their common names entered the discussion. The source of the common name for this plant is quite obvious.

The next wildflower we saw along the trail was Lindheimer's Senna, so I explained that sometimes the common name of a plant honors the person who first described it. In the case of this senna, it was first described by Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer, one of the pioneer naturalists in Texas.

Then we came to a cluster of Senna roemeriana.* I showed the group of 4th graders one of the leaves from this plant and asked them what they looked like, hoping to get a response something like, "It has two leaves on a stem." It is a single compound leaf with a pair of leaflets.

One of the students immediately replied, "It looks like bunny ears." I had to agree. So now in my book, the Senna roemeriana will always be Bunny-ears Senna, even if everyone else still wants to call it Twinleaf Senna:

This set of photographs was taken along the Oak Loop Trail in Hardberger Park on Monday, October 21, 2013.

* Correction, Saturday, October 26, 2013: In the original post, I misidentified this plant as Senna bauhinioides. This brings up another problem with common names. When I was preparing this post for publication, I did a search on wildflowers.org's native plant database using the common name "twinleaf senna" The only result the search gave me was for S. Bauhinioides.

This morning, my botanist friend and primary fact checker pointed out this is actually S. roemeriana. The only common names the native plant database lists for this species are "twoleaf or two leaved senna."

If I had verified the identification by checking my field guide or by doing a search for "Senna" in the database, I would have realized the problem with the common name for this plant and found the correct identification.

Getting In On The Act

I had taken the last photo of the Cardinal and turned to continue along the trail when I happened to notice this Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus) looking straight at me from a tree on the opposite side of the trail:

The Texas Spiny Lizards spend most of their life in trees. I suspect this arboreal habitat might in part be an evolutionary adaptation to avoid becoming prey to the "large, ground-dwelling cuckoos," the Roadrunners, whose favorite food is lizards. As if the danger presented by Roadrunners isn't enough, this lizard must also avoid becoming dinner for the "large, ground-dwelling falcons," the Crested Caracara.

This set of photographs was taken along the Oak Loop Trail at Hardberger Park on Monday, October 21, 2013.

All in the Detail

The Northern Cardinal in this series of photographs is spectacularly obvious. What isn't so obvious is these photographs would likely not have been possible if it weren't for some tasty, sweet "minor" details. The Cardinal had found a large number of ripe Texas Persimmons on the ground below the persimmon tree not far off the trail:

This set of photographs was taken along the Oak Loop Trail in Hardberger Park on Monday, October 21, 2013.

October Among the Oaks

The past week or so we have had perfect weather here in South Texas for nature hikes:

This set of photographs was taken along the Oak Loop Trail in Hardberger Park on Monday, October 21, 2013

Where There Is Royalty, There Must Also Be Commoners

As I pointed out in "Another Royal Sighting," there are two royal lineages in the Order of Lepidoptera: the Monarchs and the Emperors. Where there is royalty, there must certainly be commoners. In fact, there are a number of commoners: the Common Sootywing, the Common Streaky-Skipper, the Common Buckeye and the Common Wood-Nymph (It always helps to have a nymph or two in the Kingdom).

However, the Common Mestra is perhaps the richest of the commoners. The stripe on the margin of its hindwing is usually described as pale orange, but when the sun strikes this stripe at just the right angle, it flashes a bright gold:

In the first four photographs, this Common Mestra is enjoying the nectar of Low Verbena flowers. in the last photo, it has found a patch of Straggler Daisy.

This set of photographs was taken along the Water Loop Trail in Hardberger Park on Monday, October 14, 2013.

Second Spring 2013, Part 2

Of course "Spring," whether it is early in the year or the second Spring of Autumn, is about more than just the vegetation:

Continuing along the trail:

• The first two photos are Four-O'Clocks. These flowers get their name from the fact that they open late in the afternoon. The White Four-O'Clock flowers can actually range from white through pink and red to violet. All of them I have seen in Bexar County are dark pink to light red.
• The third and fourth photos are a Dun Skipper butterfly on a Tievine flower. Apparently, the Dun Skipper is only attracted to flowers that are white, pink or purple.
• The last two photos are of a Blue-ringed Dancer (Argia Sedula) damselfly.

This set of photographs was taken on the Yanaguana Nature Trail at Mission San Juan in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park on Thusday, October 17, 2013.